Other Professional Theater Reviews

***RECOMMENDED***   For the fifth time in the past 14 years the play "Stop Kiss" is being presented here in Chicago, and each production has been presented by vastly different companies. Ironically, four of the five (including this one) have opened in the month of January. Do we as Midwesterners crave dark and intellectually stimulating works the most to brood over during one of our darkest and traditionally brutally coldest months? Sure seems like it! That's not to say that "Stop Kiss" is a totally heavy piece of theatre that will send you into a deep depression. On the contrary, it is an oftentimes humorous and endearing glimpse at the emerging love that is generated between two very different people. With the alarming rate of anti-Semitic acts rising in the United States and Europe, as well as the increase in hate crimes committed against the LGBTQ community at large (particularly the appalling homicide rate for transgender women of color), now seems to be an opportune time to revisit playwright Diana Son's 1998 off-Broadway hit in a solidly staged co-production of Pride Films and Plays and The Arc Theatre.  3 SPOTLIGHTS

★★★★★ Marriott Theatre has brought back the true “Grease” with its book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. This is the Chicago version and is quite different that the “Hollywood”, John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John film. This play was written by Chicagoans about a Chicago high school ( Taft High School is Rydell) and this version if far meatier. At the helm of making this pleasurable theatrical experience take place is director Scott Weinstein who truly knows how to use the in-the-round stage at Marriott. He keeps the action moving and allows all four sides of the theater great views.

***RECOMMENDED*** Have you ever stopped and wondered whatever happened to all of those toys that Rudolph discovered on the Island of Misfit Toys? Clearly, Larry Todd Cousineau and Cindy O'Connor have. Both of these talented folks are the creators of "America's Best Outcast Toy," with O'Connor composing the music while the book and lyrics were written by Cousineau. As it turns out, all of these outcast toys are now living in the United States and appearing on a reality competition television program, vying for the title of -- you guessed it -- America's best. This fun holiday diversion is currently enjoying its world premiere at Pride Films and Plays.  3 Holiday SPOTLIGHTS

***RECOMMENDED*** There are not very many jukebox musicals that have an actual working jukebox on the stage. "Always...Patsy Cline," which was created by Ted Swindley in 1988, is an early example of what a jukebox musical can be, long before that term was even widely used and the concept of taking well-known songs by popular recording artists and forming a narrative to build around them seemed to dominate nearly every other musical that was opening on Broadway from early 2000 until the present day. Firebrand Theatre's current production of "Always...Patsy Cline" features a vintage Wurlitzer that fits perfectly into this very charming and intimate version of the true story of one of Patsy Cline's biggest fans which has 27 of her greatest hits interwoven throughout the course of the evening's entertainment.  3 AND 1/2 SPOTLIGHTS